1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to agricultural equipment, and more particularly to apparatus for transporting grain in and unloading it from a storage container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Handling harvested grain requires considerable care. The grain is valuable, so waste is to be prevented. On the other hand, it is also important for economic reasons to transport the grain from the field to a desired destination as quickly as practical.
Prior equipment for handling grain included gravity hoppers, which were often part of wheeled vehicles such as trailers. The hoppers usually had tapered side and/or bottom walls that funneled the grain to a bottom door. Grain fell out the door in a relatively small stream, which could then be directed by a conveyor or the like to a different location for further handling. Examples of prior hopper-type grain handling equipment may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,746,395; 4,058,239; 4,258,953; 4,475,672; 5,782,524; 5,971,494; and 6,095,616.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,249 shows a grain trailer that unloads by means of a built-in conveyor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,303 shows an auger inside a trailer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,210 discloses a hopper with a dedicated conveyor outside of the hopper.
Although the equipment of the foregoing patents worked well for their intended purposes, they nevertheless had a serious drawback. In every case, the equipment was limited to handling only grain and similar uniform material. Accordingly, although the equipment was highly useful during the grain harvesting season, for most of the year the equipment was idle. Because the equipment was expensive, the idle time increased the time required to recover the initial investment.
Like grain handling equipment, forage boxes for handling agricultural forage are also well known and in widespread use. In recent years, it has become common to mount large forage boxes on the back chasses of trucks. The trucks are driven into the fields to directly receive forage cut by choppers and similar harvesting machinery. Alternately, the forage boxes can be mounted on large trailers, which are pulled by tractors. Forage boxes often include apron chains that propel the forage material horizontally along a bed to an unloading gate. The apron chains enable the forage to be unloaded through the gate onto the ground in a very rapid manner. Like the grain handling equipment discussed previously, the forage related equipment works very well. Also like the grain handling equipment, it is very expensive, especially if it is idle for much of the year.
In an ideal situation, forage boxes could also be used to handle harvested grain. That situation would eliminate the prior need for expensive separate equipment for hauling forage and grain. However, the seemingly simple solution of double use of prior forage boxes is not feasible. That is because a large amount of grain loaded in a forage boxes would uncontrollably spill onto the ground immediately upon opening the unloading gate. The monetary loss of the spilled grain, or of the time required to pick it up, would be intolerable. Further, even if the problems associated with the initial surge of spilling grain were solved, it would be very difficult to control the unloading of the rest of the grain from the forage box. That is because the apron chains would propel the grain across the entire width of the forage box bed. At the unloading gate, the grain would fall from the bed across its entire width. The wide stream of falling grain would be very difficult to manage and direct to a different location.
It is therefore highly desirable to further develop equipment for handling grain.
In accordance with the present invention, a grain kit is provided that enables particulate material to be unloaded through a wide container opening in a completely controlled manner. This is accomplished by collecting all the material that flows through the container opening into a collector and by controlling the discharge of the material from the collector.
The grain kit is designed to work especially well with a container having side walls, a horizontal bed, an open end, and a gate. The top of the gate is connected between the container side walls for pivoting about a horizontal axis. When the gate is in a closed position, it is substantially vertical and closes the container open end. When the gate is pivoted to an open position, an opening is created along the container bed between the side walls and under the gate bottom edge. By varying the amount the gate is pivoted open, the size of the container opening is also varied.
In the preferred embodiment, the grain kit comprises a pair of holding brackets, one fastened to each side wall of the container near the gate. Each holding bracket is made with a long stop strip that is at a slight angle to the vertical. The holding brackets are designed such that the gate abuts the stop strips after the gate has pivoted a small amount toward its open position. There are tabs on the gate that overlap the holding brackets. The gate tabs and the holding brackets coact to hold the gate in a fixed partially opened position. Consequently, there is a small fixed opening between the gate bottom edge and the container bed. A heavy horizontal pin is welded to each holding bracket.
The grain kit further comprises a collector that has a back panel, two side panels, and a front panel. There is a window in a back or side panel. A floor of the collector extends between the two side panels and the back and front panels. Preferably, the floor slopes downwardly from the side panels toward a horizontal floor opening. The collector has a door that is operable to open and close the floor opening. According to one aspect of the invention, operation of the door is controlled by a handwheel. The handwheel connects to a shaft having one or more sprockets. The sprockets mesh with corresponding chains secured to a plate. Turning the handwheel causes the sprockets to slide the plate horizontally to open or close the collector floor opening. The door may also include a lock that maintains the plate at a desired position over the collector floor opening.
The grain kit collector mounts to the container by hooking the collector over the holding brackets pins. The front panel seals against a seal surface on the container under the container bed. The collector floor opening is lower than the container bed.
In use, the collector floor opening is initially closed. When the container is filled with the particulate material, some of the material might flow through the opening under the gate bottom edge and into the collector. However, the collector can fill only to a maximum of the level of the container bed. The full container is hauled to a desired station for unloading. A conveyor or other implement is positioned under the collector floor opening.
The discharge of material out of the grain kit collector is controlled by the door. Turning the handwheel slides the plate to give a desired outlet size of the collector floor opening. The door is operated to allow only a desired flow rate of the material to fall through the collector floor opening and discharge onto the conveyor. If the container has apron chains for propelling the material along the bed, they also can be used to control the material flow rate, especially for material located remote from the gate. Ideally, the flow of material into the collector from the container equals the discharge of the material out of the collector floor opening. A sweep fastened to the container brushes any loose material from the apron chains back into the collector.
An alternate embodiment of the invention allows the gate to freely pivot between its fully closed position and an unchangeable partially open position. For that purpose, there are no tabs on the gate that coact with the holding brackets to hold the gate in a fixed partially open position. Instead, the gate is held in its closed position when it is initially filled with material by a latch mechanism that engages container apron chains. Because the gate is held closed, the grain kit collector need not be mounted to the container when the container is filled. At the unloading station, with the collector mounted to the container and the collector floor opening closed, the container apron chains are operated to disengage the latch mechanism. The weight of the material against the gate forces it toward its open position. The holding brackets limit the amount of gate pivoting to an unchangeable partially open position. The resulting small opening between the gate and the container bed enables the material to flow from the container into the collector.
An outstanding benefit of the grain kit of the invention is that it can be used with containers that handle materials other than particulate materials. When desired, the collector is unhooked from the holding brackets, and the holding brackets are removed from the container walls. The gate can then pivot to both its fully closed and fully opened positions in normal manner.
In a modified embodiment of the invention, the grain kit does not use holding brackets that hold the gate in a fixed slightly open position or limit gate pivoting to an unchangeable partially open position. Instead, the size of the opening between the container bed and the gate bottom edge is adjustable. For that purpose, the modified grain kit collector comprises one or more adjustment mechanisms that adjust the amount of pivoting of the gate. Preferably, each adjustment mechanism is a screw and nut arrangement. A threaded block is fixed to the collector back panel. A long shank passes through the back panel and threads into the block. The shank has a first end that is contactable with the gate. A second end of the shank is outside of the attachment where it is adjustable by a person. By placing the shank first end close to the gate when it is closed, the adjustment mechanism limits the amount the gate can open. The amount that the gate can open is changeable by adjusting the shank. Flow of material from the container into the collector can thus be controlled both by adjusting the gate pivoting and by operating the container apron chains.
The method and apparatus of the invention, using a grain kit collector removeably mounted around a long horizontal opening in a container, thus enables the container to handle materials of widely different physical characteristics. The probability of improper handling particulate material is minimal, because both the container opening size and the collector floor opening size are controllable.
Other advantages, benefits, and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description of the invention.